For this months blog poll, I wanted to do things a little different. It's been ten years since the attacks on 9/11. It's hard to believe, really. For me it doesn't seem that long. But in that space of time I got out of active duty with the Marine Corps and started a family that now includes five children. A decade ago, I was a scared but excited twenty four year old corporal in the Marines. That morning all I could think of was going to someplace like Applebees to celebrate my birthday (yes, I was born on 9/11). That all changed after we realized what had happened in New York City.
According to the Battalion CO we had, who briefed myself and other young Marines selected for a base reaction team, we were on the highest alert since the Cuban Missile Crisis. That day we really didn't know who struck us, or if they'd strike again. I mentioned before I was both scared and excited. Kind of seems like a contradiction, I know. But I was scared not because I feared for myself, but that I would never see my fiance, and future wife, again. I was excited not only because I was young and dumb, but because all the years I spent training in the service of my country were going to be--so I thought--put to use.
As I've said in posts before, I never went to war. A lot of brave people did, though. Some of them I knew. Since 9/11, we as a country have been in a state of constant war. Ten years...one decade...is a long time. And it doesn't seem like there will be an end any time soon.
My question of the month is this: Are we in the United States of America safer then we were since 9/11?
I want to avoid the moral question of 'adventurism' or torture or any of the other legitimate questions that could be attached to such a question. Please comment in the comment section, and let me know what you think. Be objective, and be fair. Again, this does not ask the moral questions if our actions since 9/11 were 'right' or 'wrong'. That's a debate for a different time.
If by "we" you mean militant Muslims bent on mass destruction and acts of terrorism, then certainly "we" are safer in the US than we were on 9/11.
ReplyDeleteIf by "we" you mean run of the mill US citizens who are patriotic, law-abiding, and part of the religious right who have been branded by their own government as "terrorists", then NO "we" are definitely not safer than we were on 9/11.
And if by "we" you happen to mean the 3000 unborn babies who are aborted each and every day in this country by our own mothers, fathers, and doctors, then again, "we" are not safer than we were on 9/11. Every single day in this country we kill the equivalent number that were killed on 9/11 by terrorists through the unspeakable sin of abortion. We commit a 9/11 on ourselves by killing our unborn every single day.
Safe? Not those that should be.